


The Gang Goes Camping

by macdentrash



Series: Prompts [4]
Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: F/M, M/M, MacDennis - Freeform, prompts, slight chardee, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 12:39:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15886239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/macdentrash/pseuds/macdentrash
Summary: Thanks to @snoji on tumblr for the prompt!*Prompt: The gang go camping, and obviously Mac and Den have to share the same tent





	The Gang Goes Camping

“Camping is so fun man, I hope I can catch a squirrel!” Charlie says excitedly as he hops into the back of the Range Rover. 

“Charlie, squirrels are way too fast for you to catch and what would you even do with it if you caught one?” Dee asks, climbing in next to Charlie in the back seat.

“I would totally keep it as a pet! We could keep it in the bar and he could be our... whats the word... our... mascot dude!” Charlie replies, lost in excitement. 

“What the fuck are you guys talking about?” Dennis asks as he gets into the drivers seat. Mac just looks at them strangely as he slides into the passengers side.

“Charlie wants to catch a squirrel during the camping trip and bring it back to Paddys... it’s a whole thing, please don’t get him started again” Dee sighs, feigning annoyance. 

“It would be really cool though!” Charlie says, he bounces his knees in anticipation because he’s nervous to be leaving Philly. 

“Yeah, great Charlie. Mac pop in my Steve Winwood mix would you?” Dennis asks, he gives Mac a warm smile. 

“Sure Den, but can we listen to my Creed mix later? I worked really hard on it” Mac asks, giving Dennis his puppy dog eyes. 

Dennis hesitates like he’s about to say something negative but he looks into Mac’s eyes and decides differently.

“Yeah Mac, sure why not?” Dennis squeezes Mac’s arm lightly before pushing the car into drive, pulling away from Paddys. 

Mac grins at Dennis and hurriedly plays Dennis’ favorite Steve Winwood mix.

******

Dennis pulls up to the campsite and throws the car into park. 

“Oh my good God Deandra, we all know that you have to pee please shut up about it!” Dennis hisses at Dee.

“I’m sorry that I have a small bladder Dennis! I can’t help it, now please excuse me if I could so generously get your permission!” Dee screams back, practically hurling herself out of the Range Rover on the way to pee in the woods.

Charlie hops out after Dee, running towards the lake excitedly, stripping off his shirt as he goes. 

“Charlie where are you going?” Mac calls after Charlie as he rushes towards the water at full speed.

“I’m going to see if there’s any water squirrels man, don’t wait up!” Charlie yells back, waving behind him as he continues to barrel towards the body of water.

“What’s he talking about, water squirrels?” Mac asks Dennis, confused.

“Who the hell knows? You know Charlie” Dennis says, chuckling a bit under his breath. 

“Well anyways, forget him man, I brought something just for us and this seems as good a time as any” Mac grins at Dennis as he pulls out a fat blunt he had rolled that morning before he woke Dennis up. 

“Nice! Where do you wanna smoke it? I’m kind of dying to get out of this car man” Dennis asks as he swings a long leg out of the Range Rover.

Mac opens his door and hops out excitedly.   
“Wherever you want I guess! I know there’s some trails around, we could go walk around in nature for once in our lives” Mac says, he walks up to Dennis and their arms brush as they start walking towards the line of trees that are slightly ahead. 

Dennis throws an arm around Mac’s shoulder casually as they walk. 

“Thanks for bringing that, I really need to chill after being in the car with squirrel boy and the bird for so long” Dennis gives Mac a smile. He had decided earlier to be unusually nice to Mac on this trip, he wanted them to enjoy themselves because they so rarely got to escape Philly and the bar, and plus on their last road trip they’d been separated almost the entire time. 

“No problem, I figured you’d be stressed from them being annoying. It’s all in the forethought dude!” Mac says, he grins up at Dennis as they enter into the forest.

“God the air is different around here, not so smoggy. I feel like it’s actually pure?” Mac says, glancing around at the unadulterated natural landscape around them. It’s strange to see trees instead of the concrete and buildings that usually surround them. 

“Yeah yeah totally man, it’s kind of weird how you don’t notice the toxic air until you’re out somewhere like this” Dennis says, he walks over to a large log that’s a little further into the woods and settles down onto it. It’s as good a place to smoke a blunt as any. 

“Totally...” Mac trails off as he sits down on the log next to Dennis. Mac scoots until their thighs touch as he pulls the blunt out from behind his ear and lights it. 

Dennis looks over at Mac as Mac closes his eyes and takes a deep hit on the blunt. Dennis doesn’t think that Mac realizes how good he always looks, Dennis spends countless hours trying to maintain a youthful beauty that’s impossible to hold onto forever but Mac just rolls out of bed looking like that. Dennis didn’t get how that was fair. 

Mac flicks his eyes over at Dennis as he passes the blunt over. He looks like he may about to say something but doesn’t, he seems... hesitant. 

“I’m really glad we came out here” Dennis says, filling the silence, “I think it’ll be good for us to get some fresh air and just be away from all the stressful shit. Too bad Frank got stuck in that coil again, it’d be good for his old mushy brain to get out of the city” Dennis laughs, imagining Frank stuck in that coil back in Philly. 

Mac laughs and Dennis feels his chest warm, he loves making Mac laugh when they’re all alone. It’s a sound just for him to enjoy.

“Yeah, I mean look at Charlie. The kid thinks that there are water squirrels? He needs to gain a few brain cells back after drinking paint and huffing chemicals in the basement all the time” Mac says, chuckling.

The blunt dwindles down to nothing as they sit close together, laughing and staring at each other just a little bit too long. 

Dennis lets his hand settle on his thigh in a way that a couple of his fingers touch Mac’s leg. 

Mac glances down but doesn’t say anything, after a few beats he lets his hand drop too. Now both their legs and hands are touching and Mac knows that’s not something you do with your totally platonic bro, but he’s also known for a long time that how he feels for Dennis isn’t totally based on friendship alone because they’re way too wrapped up in each other for it to be a normal friendship. He lets their hands brush anyway and just looks at Dennis, Dennis is probably the prettiest person alive, Mac thinks to himself.

Dennis stands up hastily and nods his head back towards the way they came. 

“We should probably go make sure Charlie didn’t drown himself. Does that guy even know how to swim?” Dennis asks Mac, smiling at him and reaching a hand down to help him up. 

“Yeah he totally does, we learned together in elementary school. He totally sucked at first but he got it eventually” Mac says, laughing at the memory. 

Dennis laughs but he feels a little sad at the comment. Something in his chest always deflates a little when he’s reminded that Mac and Charlie were best friends first, they’d helped each other through some truly shitty childhoods and had memories together that Dennis could never be apart of. He wishes they’d been around to help him as a kid, he’d always been picked on for being small and it’d have been nice to have Mac and Charlie around. 

Just as these thoughts start to bring his mood down, he feels Mac’s warm arm brush against his and their hands touch every now and then as they walk. Dennis glances over at Mac and Mac stares back with what Dennis swears is adoration. 

Dennis smiles a little to himself. Maybe Mac and Charlie were best friends first but they’d all found each other eventually, Mac had found him and Dennis got to share an apartment with him. Dennis looks at Mac in a way that could be called love sick as they step out of the trees and into the sunlight. Mac’s hair, free of gel thank God, bounces as he walks and Dennis’ heart swells. Dennis realizes that he is totally fucked and he lets his hand brush Mac’s again, he allows it to linger there and Mac doesn’t pull away. 

“Hey boners! Oh shit did you smoke weed without us? I can totally smell it” Dee says, mad that she was left out.

“You snooze you lose Dee and lets be honest, you always lose” Dennis throws back snidely.

Mac laughs. “Like we would have shared with you even if you were around. I rolled that for me and Dennis, not you, bird” Mac says, Dennis laughs and points at Dee.  
“You are a bird” Dennis laughs. This comment is especially funny to him after that large blunt they’d just sucked down and he keeps giggling long after is appropriate. 

“Aw, did you roll it for just you and Dennis? That is SO gay” Dee laughs. 

Dennis freezes. He so doesn’t need Mac to go on an anti gay rampage right now, things were so good between them and it would totally kill his buzz if Mac started to rage about the Bible.

Mac just rolls his eyes at Dee and grabs Dennis by the hand, pulling him away. 

“Oh whatever Dee, you’re just jealous” Mac laughs and him and Dennis walk down towards the lake hand in hand.

Mac drops Dennis’ hand when they get close enough to see Charlie on the beach. Mac races up to Charlie and Dennis follows behind at a slower pace, still missing Mac’s hand in his a little bit.

“Look what I found, I think it’s the remnants of some kind of eight legged water squirrel! We have to bring this discovery back with us to Philly, I think it could be important” Charlie says, filled to the brim with excitement.

“I hate to burst your bubble man but that is a dead crab” Mac says poking at the remnants of the skeleton.

“I don’t know man, I think it’s most definitely a water squirrel” Charlie says in a dubious tone. 

“That is a skeleton! A skeleton that clearly has pincers, that my man, is a crab” Dennis says leaning down to eye level with the other two men. 

Dee comes up and peers down at them.   
“What are you guys looking at?” She asks, squinting her eyes in the light.

“Water squirrel” Charlie says at the same time Mac and Dennis say “dead crab”.

“Oookay, I’m not gonna ask. Can we set up the camping shit before it gets dark? We’re going to be way too lazy to do it later” Dee says.

“That sounds practical Dee” Dennis says, standing up to his full height. 

They all discard the crab, though Charlie does give the decaying creature a longing look as they walk back up towards the Range Rover. 

Dennis pops the back open and starts unloading everything.

“Is anyone gonna help me?” Dennis asks and Mac steps up beside him to start pitching in. Charlie and Dee soon start helping as well, though maybe not as enthusiastically. 

******

The sun sets over the lake and the gang give a joint sigh as they lean back in the chairs they brought and sip their beers.

Charlie gets up and starts gathering dry leaves and kindling to start a fire in the pit that they had set the chairs up around. 

“Well I don’t know about you guys but I’m dying to have a s’more!” Mac says excitedly hopping up from his seat between Dennis and Dee and walking over to the cardboard box they were keeping the food in. 

Dennis rolls his eyes as Mac leaves his side.

“Of course you are dude, you have such a sweet tooth” Dennis tells him fondly.

“Whatever dude, irrelevant” Mac says and gives him a slightly pouty look, Dennis just glances down at his lip as it juts down and he doesn’t even think about what it would feel like to bite down on it or kiss the lips that were always going a mile a minute. He totally doesn’t think about that, not even once. 

Dennis gets up and makes his way over next to Mac, almost like he’s pulled there by some unknowable force.

“I’ll have a s’more too. The only time I can stand them is on camping trips so I might as well indulge it” Dennis says and bumps his shoulder against Mac’s softly. 

“Make me one too losers, I’m getting a little bit too buzzed to get up” Dee says, laying her head back to stare up at the wide open sky. 

“I’ll make you one Dee” Charlie says as he trudges back over to them with his arms laden with sticks he’d obviously just gathered from the woods. 

“Thanks Charlie” Dee says and gives him a sweet smile that makes her nickname fit for once.

Dennis glances at Mac, wordlessly asking “what’s that about?” but he decides not to say anything, they really are all enjoying each other’s company for once.

Charlie makes a fire and Mac, Dennis and he quickly start making s’mores. Mac and Dennis settle back into their seats and laugh while they eat. Charlie makes two s’mores and gives Dee a warm smile when he hands her one. 

They all chew their food and stare around themselves. After they’re done eating they crack open some more beers and sit around shooting the shit for a couple of hours.

After Mac had to run after Charlie to stop him from trying to chase after a creature in the dark, they all decide its time for bed. They’re all thankful that they had the foresight to set up their tents and sleeping bags earlier, they were all way too buzzed and sleepy to do it now. 

Dennis had made sure that him and Mac shared the same tent, mumbling something about how they were roommates so they were more used to sleeping by each other. 

Dee crawls into her and Charlie’s tent and Charlie follows soon after. 

Mac turns to Dennis, his hair messy and eyes sleepy.

Mac yawns “It’s late, you wanna go to bed Den?” he asks.

Dennis’ chest warms at the nickname coming out in Mac’s tired voice and also at the fact that Mac was asking him, like he would stay up with Dennis all night if that’s what he wanted.

“Sure baby boy, let’s go to bed” Dennis says and grabs Mac’s hand to help him up from his chair.

Mac smiles wildly and allows Dennis to haul him up. 

Dennis takes his hand from Mac’s when Mac stands and moves it to his lower back, guiding him with a light hand towards their tent.

Mac climbs in first and immediately snuggles up in his sleeping bag, the night has grown chilly fairly quickly and all he has on is a sleeveless t-shirt.

Dennis settles into his sleeping bag. He notices that him and Mac are in very close proximity. Mac had set up the sleeping bags, Dennis wonders if their closeness is intentional. 

Dennis lays there for awhile, trying to sleep but something (or someone) is keeping him from falling asleep completely.

Dennis opens his eyes and glances over at Mac. Mac has his eyelids slid shut and he looks completely at peace. Dennis let’s himself drink in Mac’s features and thinks to himself how ridiculous he is, for Christ’s sake he sees Mac everyday and lives with him but somehow Mac’s face still surprises him. Mac’s hair falls over his eyes and his lips are puckered out, soft. 

Dennis slides up in his sleeping bag a bit and he tentatively reaches his hand out to gently remove Mac’s hair from his forehead. 

Mac’s nose crinkles up and his eyes flutter open, Dennis slowly retracts his hand. 

“Den, what are you still doing up?” Mac asks sleepily.

Dennis is too tired and caught up in the scene set out before him to lie.  
“Lookin at you” Dennis replies and give Mac a lukewarm smile. 

Mac smiles so brightly that the Sun should be ashamed of itself.

“That’s really sweet Dennis. But you see me everyday, you should know what I look like by now” Mac says, his eyes are fully open now and he rolls his body towards Dennis’ almost imperceptibly. 

“Yeah yeah, I know that. I just can’t help it. And I’ve been thinking about something, I’m really sorry Mac” Dennis says. He reaches his hand back over to Mac again but this time he grabs the other mans hand and gently rolls his thumb in circles against the skin there. 

Mac lets his hand be held and stares at Dennis with big eyes. 

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about” Mac says softly and he rubs his own thumb against Dennis’. 

“Yeah, I do... do you remember all the times you’ve told me that you love me? Well I’m really really sorry for never saying it back. I was just scared I guess? But I want you to know that I do love you and I honestly couldn’t do any of this shit without you” Dennis says in one long stream, not pausing to breathe in his nervousness. Dennis averts his eyes, a little bit scared of Mac’s reaction. 

Mac doesn’t say anything, he just sits for a moment with wide eyes staring at Dennis’ profile. 

Dennis still doesn’t look at Mac, slightly embarrassed at letting down his normal “emotionless shell” and his own earnestness. Mac takes his hand from Dennis’ and Dennis shrinks down even further but Mac just takes his hand and places a finger under Dennis’ chin until Dennis chances a glance back over at him. 

“Den, I always knew you did, I didn’t doubt it. You tell me everyday by the way you look at me when you think I can’t see you, you tell me by staying. But that doesn’t make it less nice to hear” Mac says softly. He lets his fingers graze Dennis’ jawline and he moves his body so their sides touch and their faces get closer together. 

Dennis eyes haven’t left Mac’s face since he started speaking. Mac is looking down at him with joy pooled in his dark brown eyes and Dennis, never one for impulse control, can’t help himself. Dennis allows his hand to brush a stray hair out of Mac’s face, he then winds his graceful fingers into Mac’s hair. Mac leans in on bated breath and Dennis uses his hand to pull Mac’s face to his, he kisses him tentatively. 

The seemingly innocent kiss turns into their mouths deepening against each other and hands roaming. Dennis cradles Mac’s face in his hands and holds him there, trying to tell him with physicality all of the things he’s always been too scared to say.

After a long time of them holding each other, kissing, touching and whispering sweet little things to each other, Mac pulls away lightly and kisses Dennis’ forehead.

Mac looks at Dennis hazily and gives him a big, lazy smile when Dennis wraps an arm over Mac’s sleeping bag to pull him closer. 

“Mm cold Den, why didn’t I bring a sweater?” Mac says lazily, running a light finger over the dip of Dennis’ Cupid’s bow and giving him a soft kiss. 

“I didn’t either, we didn’t know it’d get this cold, but I might have an idea” Dennis says softly and he unzips his sleeping bag while quirking an eyebrow at Mac. 

Mac smiles and hastily crawls out of his sleeping bag and into Dennis’ arms. Dennis closes the sleeping bag, it was roomier than he had previously calculated and wraps both arms around Mac’s torso, pulling him close. 

Dennis looks at Mac staring up at him and leans down to run his tongue over Mac’s bottom lip, he soon bites it lightly just as he had (not) thought about earlier around the campfire. Mac responds eagerly and lets Dennis kiss him deeply. 

Soon they both grow sleepy and Mac falls asleep with his head on Dennis’ chest and Dennis soon follows after bringing Mac’s hand to his mouth (fingers still intertwined even though Mac has conked out) and running small kisses where their fingers meet. They sleep comfortably into the mid morning, enveloped in each others warmth. 

******

Dee wakes up first in the morning, banging around and trying her best to make instant coffee over the fire that she restarts. 

Dennis wakes up to her ruckus. He looks down at Mac, still sleeping on his chest, and he smiles. Dennis nudges Mac with his nose until he wakes up, giving Dennis a warm smile as he’s brought back to consciousness.

“Morning Den!” Mac says softly and he gives him the smallest kiss they had shared yet, just a very light brushing of lips. 

Dennis ruffles Mac’s hair and kisses his forehead.

“The bird woke me up” Dennis laughs and Mac giggles afterwards. 

“Well we should probably get up, lots to do before we can start driving home” Mac says and smiles at Dennis as he gets up and starts heading out of the tent.

“Yeah, we still have to pack up all that shit huh? Please make sure Charlie doesn’t bring back any crab skeletons or any skeletons for that matter” Dennis laughs.

“Oh and Dennis?” Mac turns around before he leaves the tent completely. 

“Yeah Mac?” Dennis asks.

“I love you too” he says softly and they both grin.  
******  
Mac and Dennis stay even closer to each other than usual (which is ridiculous as they are usually touching in some capacity anyways) the whole day as the gang walks around the woods and goes swimming in the lake. 

Around mid afternoon they all pack everything back into the Range Rover and point the car back towards Philly, Dennis lets Mac choose the music all the way home.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, comments/kudos make my day! Find me @macdentrash on tumblr and send me more prompts for this series:)


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